CLEVELAND, Ohio - Developer Scott Wolstein expects to bring a high-end movie theater, hundreds more apartments and additional dining to the Flats East Bank project - with help from a new player in town, Chicago-based Akara Partners.

Documents submitted to Cleveland's planning department show a 12-story, mixed-use complex that's slated to join the 23-acre neighborhood near the east bank of the Cuyahoga River. The building will replace a 2.5-acre parking lot at West 11th Street and Main Avenue, behind the Flats at East Bank apartments.

Dubbed Kenect Cleveland, the project - a 50-50 joint venture between Wolstein and investor-developer Akara - is the larger of two proposals that will comprise phase three of the Flats. A city review committee got its first look last month at the smaller plan, for three riverfront restaurants that will replace a grassy swath between existing eateries and FWD Day and Nightclub.

Wolstein hopes to start construction on phase three before the end of the year. If that timeline holds, the restaurants could open in late summer 2019, followed by the mixed-use building in mid-2020.

Designs for Kenect Cleveland show it's clearly aimed at the millennial market. The taller portion of the building, over Main Avenue, will house 309 apartments. Most of them will be 350-square-foot studios, with some 560-square-foot one-bedroom units and 1,050-square-foot three-bedroom units mixed in.

"This is a real attempt to do units that are more micro-units, that are very affordable," said Wolstein, who wouldn't discuss projected rents. "In lieu of having a lot of square footage within the unit, we put an extraordinary amenity package within the building. It's intended to be much more of a social atmosphere."

Wolstein said 40 percent of renters at the Flats at East Bank, a roughly 240-unit apartment building with much larger units, are empty nesters. Those apartments are full, but they're too costly for many young renters, who seem to balk at paying more than $1,500 to $1,600 a month, he said.

By building smaller units, landlords can rent them out at a higher per-square-foot rate - covering the high costs of new construction - without giving possible tenants sticker shock. A few developers in Cleveland have toyed with building micro-units, but the Flats finally might test the market for a product that's popular elsewhere.

"This is the right place to do it, because there's so much to do outside your door," Wolstein said. "A live, work and play environment is where these kinds of units should be very, very attractive."

The building will include a green roof; an outdoor pool and terraces for tenants; a community room with a bar and entertainment; co-working facilities; and close to 30,000 square feet of retail. Plans also show a garage and more than 300 bicycle parking spaces tucked inside.

Florida-based iPic Entertainment, Inc., will operate an eight-screen movie theater and restaurant. A luxury brand that Wolstein described as "Rolls-Royce of movie theaters," iPic runs 15 cinemas in a handful of states. The Flats East Bank is the company's first location announced in Ohio.

Additional retail space in the building could go to two or three restaurants, though Wolstein said he's open to leasing space on Main Avenue to service retailers, such as hair salons or spas.

The first two phases of the Flats East Bank, with an office tower, a hotel, dining, entertainment, apartments and a riverfront boardwalk, carried a price tag of more than $500 million. The third phase could cost $150 million, Wolstein said.

The projects still need public approvals for design and financing. Wolstein said he's had "open" and "very friendly" conversations with city officials about potential aid, but he wouldn't elaborate. Tax breaks and other government assistance were key parts of the complicated public-private underpinnings of the first two phases.

Wolstein plans to take advantage of the new, federal opportunity zone program to attract investors to the project. The program, established last year as part of tax reform, offers investors tax deferrals and savings if they put capital gains, such as profits from selling stock or real estate, into a fund focused on investments in high-poverty, low-income areas. The Flats project sits in such an opportunity zone.

At the state level, Wolstein is watching legislation that the House passed just this week. House Bill 469 would create a special tax credit for "transformational mixed-use development." Originally tailored to the ambitious nuCLEus plan for downtown Cleveland's Gateway District, the bill became much broader.

The current language, headed to the Senate for consideration, would apply to a project that costs at least $50 million, marries multiple uses and includes at least one building of 15 stories or taller. Insurance companies that invest in the projects could use the credits to offset premium taxes, which go to the state's general fund.

"We've been very actively engaged with the legislature on that," Wolstein said, adding that he believes the Flats, which already includes a tall office building, would easily qualify.

A city design-review committee is scheduled to review plans for Kenect Cleveland on Thursday. That same committee gave an early thumbs-up last month to images of the riverfront restaurants. The designs will require at least one more round of pubic reviews and, ultimately, feedback and approval from the Cleveland City Planning Commission.